I hate to disagree with you, my friend. Flying "Standby" means that the person only has a seat if someone doesn't show up. The woman paid for a seat on a flight, but the "standby" status doesn't mean a specific flight. If she wanted that flight she should have purchased it long before like the parent of the kid did. SWA played by the rules. By-they-way, does anyone know how long she had to wait for another flight? How do you know that the kid was morbidly obese? Do you agree that the airline has downsized their seat size to put more seats in for obvious reasons? The point I was trying to make is that larger folks who aren't necessarily fat have a harder time flying because of this. I wish that people were able to be more tolerant and sympathetic of the kid. It isn't easy being a kid, let alone one that is overweight. The converse is true as well. People who are really thin are tormented too.
How do I know that the teen was morbidly obese? She couldn’t fit into a single seat, which is all she paid for. The standby passenger has a right to any unsold seat on that flight. There was an unsold seat, but SWA gave the extra seat to the fat teen. SWA should be whacked for that.
I understand all about airline seats and standby. I’m logging about 50k miles in the air just this summer.
There is no reason to be “tolerant and sympathetic”. My point primarily had to do with SWA. But, the teen would probably benefit from less tolerance and sympathy because her parent(s) are letting her eat herself into diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and an early grave. That, however, wasn’t the point ofthe post.